Hundreds of millions of pounds are likely to be wiped from the education budget on Monday when ministers cull quangos and slash initiatives.

The chief secretary to the Treasury, David Laws, will announce £6bn of cuts – from education and elsewhere – in an attempt to dent Britain's £163bn fiscal deficit.

In education, quangos expecting the chop include:

- The Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency, responsible for designing the school curriculum, which has an annual budget of £128m and employs 500 people.

- Becta, in charge of promoting the use of technology in schools, which has an annual budget of £65m and employs 250 people.

Areas thought to be earmarked for heavy cuts include:

- The Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA), which trains teachers and ensures schools are delivering government policy. Last year its budget was £743m.

- Teachers TV, a government-sponsored website and, until this summer or autumn, a free-to-air television channel which provides material and ideas for lessons.

- The Young People's Learning Agency, which funds education and training for 16 to 19-year-olds and employs 450 people.

- The School Food Trust, which tries to improve the standard of school dinners.

- The Children's Commissioner, which aims to champion the voices of children and young people in their local areas.

Douglas Carswell, Conservative MP for Clacton in Essex who has served on the schools select committee, heralded the cuts to education as the start of a "decentralising revolution".

Carswell said: "I hope that the coalition means we can have a new consensus that changes the relationship between government and schools. I hope this is the start of a decentralising revolution in which those people who are happy with the status quo can carry on as they are and those who want more autonomy can opt out of 40 years of authoritarian control in education."

Conservative peer Baron Lucas said there was a "ridiculous plethora of quangos in education".

At the QCDA, staff were told last week to stop working on any "developmental projects" and to cut off communication with anyone outside the organisation unless it was absolutely urgent. A source said staff were waiting "ministerial direction" and had stopped completing tasks.

Last July, David Cameron said the QCDA "must go". On Thursday, the coalition government repeated that schools would have greater freedom over the curriculum.

But John Howson, a former government adviser and president of the Lib Dems Education Association, said that if some of the role of the QCDA was done by civil servants inside the Department for Education, this might be more expensive than if it was done by the quango. "Without the work of the QCDA on school standards, ministers will not be able to answer whether standards have gone up when A-levels results rise this summer," he said.

Above many of the initiatives on the websites of the QCDA, TDA, Becta and School Food Trust is a banner stating: "A new UK government took office on 11 May. As a result, the content on this site may not reflect current government policy."

Sources close to the quangos said a new primary curriculum, due to be implemented this September, and a new form of assessment — Assessing Pupils' Progress — were under particular threat as they were thought to be too "Labourite".

Earlier this month, the Guardian revealed that the new government had put a £55bn school rebuilding programme under review, freezing plans for hundreds of new secondaries in England.

Sources close to the project said there would be a concerted drive to make savings from the £8.5bn annual budget for new schools, redirecting some of that money to help start the Swedish-style free schools the Conservatives have promised.

In March, Ed Balls said he would shave £500m from the Department for Children, Schools and Families by slashing quangos, halving the bursaries for trainee teaching and dramatically cutting communication costs.

Becta said it "looked forward to discussing our future contribution with ministers" and a statement from the QCDA said "whatever the future direction of education policy, our experience and expertise mean we are well placed to support the new government".